Declined transaction emails do not give sufficient information to know to whom.

[ardrighart]

Since I removed my bank account from PayPal, I am getting emails that say

Hello xxxxx,

Sorry your transaction was declined

Here's how to avoid that in the future

They do not say what transaction was declined! How can I figure out who is not getting paid?

As far as I can tell, I have set all automatic payment to go to a card on file, and so expect everything to be billed to it. However, I am getting the occasional rather worthless email above. If I could determine who is not getting paid, I would perhaps be able to determine what to do. Fortunately I have not had anyone contact me to complain - yet.

Anyone else notice this behavior?

[PayPal_RebeccaN · Accepted solution]

Hi @ardrighart, 

Thank you for posting in the PayPal Community! 

I am sorry to hear that you are having issues with declined transactions. 

You should have the ability to view all transactions, including failed transactions from within the 'Activity' section on your PayPal account. 

Here's how to change your preferred funding source:

1. Click Wallet.
2. Click the preferred funding method.
3. Click Set as preferred.

To change the payment method of a subscription, see below: 

You need to add an alternate payment method to your PayPal account before you change or remove your subscription's funding source.

First, you need to change your current payment method:

1. Log in to your account.
2. Click the Settings icon next to "Log out."
3. Click the Payments tab.
4. Click Manage automatic payments.
5. Select the merchant whose agreement you want to change.
6. Click the pencil beside 'Payment method.'
7. Select an alternate payment method and click Save.

I hope this helps, have a nice day! 

-Rebecca. 

[ardrighart]

Well, I have looked under >Activity>All transactions and not found any of the declined transactions. One vendor has contacted me, whose recurring payment I needed to cancel anyway. There were a few other messages I have not been able to figure out. I guess if they are important it will become obvious. On the other hand, if the number has gotten into the wrong hands, it may be beneficial that it is not working.

The problem is that it was not clear, after talking with help staff, that I could not use my paypal business debit card to make business related in person payments and have it funded from my personal credit card. This was not the behavior I was led to believe when asking how to make sure that transactions were paid from my card and not bank and was told to just remove the bank account.  Online payments using paypal buttons, or recurring payments that have been changed to reflect my now preferred source are not problem, but I can not swipe or use my card online anymore without the bank account.

I can see why PayPal would not want to fund a card with a card, but from my perspective, it greatly hampers my business needs for keeping my books separate from my personal expenditures. I may have to look into another way of doing things.

Thank you for the input.  I would be glad to figure out where to look for this information, but have decided so far it is not critical.

[ardrighart]

I did not find the information following the links, though I haven't checked lately too see if the was a change. I do wish to provide major kudos to you, however, for I noticed within about two days that my alert emails now contained the name of the declined business. Further, as I had suspected, they were mostly suspect transactions, so I consider it very providential that I had re moved my bank account when I did. Thank you PayPal_RebeccaN and thank you PayPal for your responsiveness!